Portraits
Portraits are McGuffins in Luigi's Mansion that are obtained by using the Poltergust 3000 to capture Portrait Ghosts. Every portrait ghost and boss ghost has their own set of portraits, three in the 2001 original and four in the 2018 remake. The four portrait ranks, Bronze, Silver, Gold and the 3DS Hidden Mansion-exclusive Platinum, are given depending on how well the player fares against the respective ghost. Acquisition Portrait Ghosts For the many portrait ghosts, mastery of the Poltergust is required to obtain the Gold Frame. As the ghosts lose HP, they will periodically drop Pearls in three different sizes, the rank of the portrait is based on these pearls, which in turn drop based on the amount of HP drained in one pull. In the GameCube version, the paintings themselves seem to differ in style randomly from rank to rank, but in the 3DS version, they follow a strict style, with Bronze Rank portraits being sketches of the character's bust, sometimes with a somber expression, Silver resembling an oil painting, usually, but not always of the character's bust, and Gold and Platinum being presented as dynamic photographs of the ghosts. For a Bronze Rank, Luigi simply has to fail to meet the requirements for the Silver frame. For a Silver Rank, Luigi must acquire at least one Medium Pearl from the ghost, which requires him to drain 50HP in a single use of the Poltergust, after the initial 50, the ghost will drop more medium pearls in the place of small pearls until it either breaks free or drops down to its last 10HP. For a Gold Rank, Luigi has to take out 90 of the Portrait Ghost's 100HP in one go, which will cause it to drop a single Large Pearl. In Luigi's Mansion on 3DS, exclusively in the game's harder Hidden Mansion mode, the player can acquire a Platinum Rank frame for all the ghosts. To do so, the player will need to drain 140HP from the ghosts' now 150 health total in a single pull. Boss Ghosts The four Bosses in the game have their own stipulation. Because bosses must be defeated in at least two pulls, instead of dropping Pearls, the rank of the portrait frame is determined by the amount of damage the player has taken in the fight. Bronze Rank is obtained by losing over 50HP in the fight. Silver Rank requires the player to defeat the boss after losing anywhere from 11 to 49HP. Gold Rank requires the player to lose less than 10HP during the fight. Platinum Rank, again exclusive to the 3DS Hidden Mansion, requires the player to stay above 95HP for the duration of the fight. Because of how the 3DS version calculates this, it's possible to circumvent this issue via using Mario amiibo to regain health. Characteristics Depending on the version of the game, the Portraits themselves take on different characteristics, themselves dependent on the type of frame the portrait has. Bronze Frames GameCube In the original Luigi's Mansion, none of the frames seem to carry any consistent theme. However it, at the baseline, appears that Bronze Frames showcase the various ghosts in fairly mundane poses. A variety of filters are used, a common practice in earlier GameCube titles. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker does something similar with its Cabana Puzzles. 3DS In stark contrast, the 3DS version of the game carries a central theme across each frame type, with no seemingly random filters to be seen. The Bronze Framed Portraits in this version of the game resemble sketches, with very muted colour. Almost all of them show the ghost in-question either staring head-on, or looking off in the distance. Most of the ghosts show faces of sadness, pained indifference, or complete lack of interest. In the case of Miss Petunia, her Bronze portrait shows her silhouette from behind the shower curtain. Silver Frames GameCube The silver frames in the original seem to communicate more dynamic poses and a more vivid colour palette. There are more interesting visual filters to accompany many of the portraits. 3DS The portable version once again condenses the portraits into a singular theme. Here, the ghosts take on a variety of poses, some repurposed from their Bronze, Silver and Gold frames in the original. The colours are very soft and overall, the portraits were made to resemble oil paintings. Gold Frames GameCube The home console version's Gold portraits were designed to appear visually striking, with the filters being more extreme in appearance. The colour palettes have also become more saturated overall. 3DS The portable version has an assortment of dynamic poses, some completely new, and some reused from the GameCube's frames. They no longer have a consistent filter applied to them, save for a smearing effect on most of the backgrounds. Platinum Frames (3DS Hidden Mansion Only) The 3DS's exclusive set of Platinum Frames showcase a wide variety of fancy, dynamic poses and rich colours, a lot of them featuring dynamic angle, as well as having the ghosts in fighting poses. Most, if not all of these, are unique and not taken from previous portraits.